title: 20-Gbit/s directly modulated photonic crystal nanocavity laser with ultra-low power consumption.
abstract: We have demonstrated an ultracompact buried heterostructure photonic crystal (PhC) laser, consisting of an InGaAsP-based active region (5.0 x 0.3 x 0.15 μm3) buried in an InP layer. By employing a buried heterostructure with an InP layer, we can greatly improve thermal resistance and carrier confinement. We therefore achieved a low threshold input power of 6.8 μW and a maximum output power in the output waveguide of -10.3 dBm by optical pumping. The output light is effectively coupled to the output waveguide with a high external differential quantum efficiency of 53%. We observed a clear eye opening for a 20-Gbit/s NRZ signal modulation with an absorbed input power of 175.2 μW, resulting in an energy cost of 8.76 fJ/bit. This is the smallest reported energy cost for any type of semiconductor laser.
authors.affiliation: NTT Photonics Laboratories, NTT Corp., 3-1 Morinosato-Wakamiya, Atsugi, Kanagawa 243-0198, Japan. matsuo.shinji@lab.ntt.co.jp
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matsuo
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shinya
authors.forename: Chin-Hui
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Kengo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nozaki
authors.forename: Tomonari
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawaguchi
authors.forename: Hideaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Taniyama
authors.forename: Masaya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Notomi
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D054023:Lasers, Semiconductor; D008872:Microwaves; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000295:instrumentation*